“Delta helped stoke in me a desire to see each student as an individual with unique challenges and strengths, and this has greatly influenced my current mentoring style.”
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Biology, Regis University
UW–Madison Career: PhD, Genetics
Delta Internship Project: Characterizing Majority and Minority Student Expectations of an Introductory Gender and Women’s Studies Course
How did Delta programming shape your work as a mentor and advisor?
I had the opportunity to mentor several other students while working as a graduate student. It would have been simple to decide that some students just were not up to the challenge of working in the lab, but each of these students had a career goal in mind that I wanted to help them reach. I wanted to play a small part in helping them discover the greatness in themselves. Delta helped stoke in me a desire to see each student as an individual with unique challenges and strengths, and this has greatly influenced my current mentoring style.
How did Delta help prepare you for the academic job market?
I used my Delta course and teaching project experience in every aspect of my application and interview. During the interview process, being able to talk about my internship highlighted my commitment to increasing student access to higher education through the use of evidence-based teaching strategies. These same strategies that I learned and practiced through Delta, including peer-assisted learning, have now been incorporated into the introductory biology courses at my current institution.